Tuesday, August 01, 2006

The dark clouds thunder ...

Well, the rains have let up today, but the city is soaked. The roads are pockmarked with craters. We haven't seen the sun in nearly a week.

Yesterday afternoon as the rains came down, I sat on the hinchko, the porch-swing, with the cool water-laden breeze swaying the trees, the loud pitter-patter as the drops hit the metal awning, and then splattered onto the lawn, now a sea of muck.
 

It was so peaceful! In my head, an old bandish (song/composition) in the monsoon raag Megh Malhar started playing out ...

गरजे घटा घन कारे कारे
पावस ऋतु आई
दुलहन मन भाई
चहूं ओर घन घोर
बोले दादुर मोर
यांमत खां अत सुख पाऐ

Garajey ghata ghana, kaarey kaarey
Pavas rtu aayi
Dulhan mana bhaayi
Chahun oar ghana ghoar
Boley dadur moar
Yamat Khan at sukh paayey


The dark thick clouds thunder
The monsoons are here!
The bride is very pleasing ...
All around it is thick dark
The dadur and the peacock sing
Yamat Khan (the composer) is utterly at peace.

[Nope, I've no idea why a dulhan, bride, suddenly pops up in there ... ]

 
Cow and buffalo trails in the bed of the Mahi river
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2 comments:

Warren said...

Cool. You're catholic, you can read/write Devanagari, you like Latin, and you like traditional Indian music.

Awesome combo. I learned to read and write in Hindi (Devanagari) for fun, because I love Hindi movies, and have been learning lots of Hindi vocabulary from watching hindi movies.


Ultracrepidarian

Fr. Gaurav Shroff said...

Heh ... ya I could be described as a bit eclectic. I grew up in India, so know am fluent in Hindi (and therefore Devnagiri) and I trained my voice in Hindustani classical for many years.

However, (and I'm sure I am part of about 0.001% of desis worldwide), I never was a huge Bollywood fan. Most Bollywood movies -- and I try a few on every visit back to India -- are a huge problem. Filmi music is cool though ... :)